Comment 39681

By moylek (registered) - website | Posted April 12, 2010 at 17:45:48

Note to the editor: the system timed out on me while editing the above. Would you please delete the first above? Thanks. KM

The question would then be "why do poor people smoke and use crack at high enough rates that they cut the avg life expectancy by 21 years?"

That is a question, but not the question. The question presupposes that poverty is the defining characteristic and that smoking and crack use are behaviours to which people are driven by poverty.

For example, crack use might well cause poverty. Smoking might correlate with an inability to think about consequences, which would also make it hard to keep a good job.

I don't suggest that poverty is merely one factor of many - it would seem to a key factor, both as a cause of problems and as a symptom of problems. Probably a nasty feedback loop of miseries. But we need to be careful about how we phrase the questions - because if we assume that poverty is the root cause, then we might assume that money is the answer. But it's not that simple.

-- Kenneth Moyle Hamilton, Ontario

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